crafting near Paris, France

Polka Dotted Merci

Today’s card started with some inks and Stampin’Up!’s decorative mask. I didn’t know where I was going, I just wanted to have a play ^^

I looked for a color scheme on Pinterest and chose this one:

I looked for the corresponding ink pads I got, and selected Bashful Blue (the lightest shade of Blue I had, wish I had Soft Sky, I think it would have matched better with the one on the picture), Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red and Sahara Sand. I carefully taped my mask to make sure it wouldn’t move and randomly sponged inks to create colourful dots. Once I had the dotted background, I figured out what to do with it… put it against a Sahara Sand paper as my card base: yes, that works. But it needed to be put into relief, so I added to fine stripes of Tempting Turquoise to make it stand.

The photos are a bit dark, thanks to this lovely weather we have at the moment in Paris… 😦

Ok, then? What about a sentiment? but where to put it, because of this busy background? I had the idea of splitting my dotted background in two to reveal the sentiment directly on the card base. I chose a “thank you” sentiment from Fabuleux Quatuor, bold enough to compete with the dots, and to make sure it would stand, I stamped it in Soft Suede, a darker brown. I used the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig and a post-it note to stamp only the “merci” on the front card, reserving the rest of the sentiment for the inside. Then I mounted the dotted paper on foam tape and added some alcohol markers coloured pearls around the sentiment. I decorated the inside of the card with the same techniques.

I really like to create my own backgrounds. The funny thing is I love DSP too and tend to hoard them, but I get so mad at the idea of cutting the sheets that I never use them… how crazy is that! Please tell me I’m not the only one to do this 😉